The New Iraq: "Chess Is Absolutely Forbidden"

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
February 9, 2005

Cricket is Fine; But Chess is "Absolutely Forbidden"
Sistani's Vision for Iraq
By PATRICK COCKBURN

Baghdad.

Cricket is allowed but chess is "absolutely forbidden". Women may not shake hands with men. Music is permitted but only if it is not for enjoyment. Men cannot pray when wearing earrings.

These are the views of the most powerful man in Iraq. After the US invasion, various American officials and generals believed they occupied this position. They turned out to be wrong. As the election victory of the Shias has confirmed, the most influential figure in Iraq, dressed in tattered grey robe and black turban, is Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Iraq could be on the verge of seeing the greatest setback to women's rights in the Middle East since Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran in 1979. Laws on marriage, divorce and inheritance could be changed in favour of men. Under Islamic law, daughters inherit less than the sons.

There is also no doubt that Iraq is heading towards some form of Islamic republic even if it is more liberal than Iran. This is likely to be reflected in the new constitution to be drafted by the National Assembly just elected. "We call for having Islam as the main and only source of legislation and we reject any article that runs contrary to the Islamic legislation," said Ibrahim al-Ibrahimi, the spokesman of another Grand Ayatollah, Ishaq al-Faladh. "We call on Iraqi officials to preserve the face of Iraq and not to separate religion and state."

Even if the Shia clergy try to stay behind the scenes, they will have great authority over Iraqi politics. Neither of the two main Shia parties, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) and Dawa, long persecuted by Saddam Hussein, are very popular. They are seen by many Iraqis as carpetbaggers, arriving in Iraq on the back of an American tank. Sciri and the Badr Brigade, its paramilitary wing, fought on the Iranian side in the Iran-Iraq war and allegedly tortured Iraqi prisoners of war.

Without the support of Ayatollah Sistani, the religious parties and independent individuals would have had far fewer votes. They must listen to the clergy.

Already there are signs of Iraq becoming more Islamic particularly in Sunni districts. Many shops selling alcohol, usually owned by Christians, have closed. Some have been attacked. In al-Rashid Street and the largely Sunni district of Dohra, shops selling CDs have been destroyed. Female students at Baghdad University now frequently have their heads covered to make it less likely that they will be kidnapped.


http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick02092005.html

[solinvictus]

1. That bad old Saddam...

letting women attend university and participate in public and economic life. Yes, I know he was brutal, but another theocracy is going to be as bad, if not worse.

[Stuckinthebush]

2. Ha! I read it as "Cheese is absolutely forbidden."

Damn! Iraq is going vegan!

[Itsthetruth]

4. Cheese And Crackers

Cheese is next! And so are decadent crackers!

[Canuckistanian]

20. You! Put down those Chips Ahoy cookies!

Or you will roast in Hell.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

3. Get ready to be in Iraq

For at least the next 10 years.

[MichiganVote]

5. Chess? Does it lead to drinking or fornicating? Baffled.

[Anakin Skywalker]

12. Chess Involves Thinking, OK?

:) ABSOLUTELY NO THINKING ALLOWED in a theocrazy!

[MichiganVote]

14. Thinking???? Oh for crying out loud, let's go back to the cave days

[Shakespeare]

6. Gee, what a great democracy.

Boy, we sure improved things, didn't we? :eyes:

[Freedom_from_Chains]

7. Hey maybe we can use it as a model

for our new government.

[AzDar]

8. I swear to god, I told my hubby this EXACT thing was going to happen..

out of the frying pan, and into the FIRE. Frankly, I envisioned the
"newly elected" regime to be a bit more Taliban-ish. Hubby says that
my scenario will never come to fruition, because the U.S. will "fix"
the elections...and I must say, I'm baffled as to why they haven't.....

[Cocoa]

9. don't give Joe Lieberman any ideas

[McKenzie]

10. I know of another country that is gripped by fundamentalism

and where religous zealots want to impose their theocratic view on people who want nothing to do with a theocracy that draws its values from untestable hypotheses. Sad, isn't it?

Good post; a warning to all of us to guard against intolerance and repression foisted upon us by the god botherers.

[Stirk]

11. The Iraqi Jerry Falwell. Hooray.

[Az_lefty]

13. Well, we certainly improved things in Iraq.

:shrug:

[American Tragedy]

15. Chess is absolutely forbidden? Chess?

You know, even when I close my eyes and ask myself, "What aspect of this might enrage a scary fundamentalist Muslim?" I still can't figure out the intense objection to chess.

[Nikia]

16. I didn't know tthey had anything against chess either

I thought that they did play chess in Islamic countries.

[karlrschneider]

17. Just a guess (I'm serious)...because the queen is the most powerful piece?

If it isn't that I have no fukin' idea...
:eyes:

[Itsthetruth]

18. Huh?

So would I be right if I thought they are opposed to wine and cheese socials?

[hfojvt]

21. actually the king is more powerful

when it gets threatened or captured, it is the center of the game. The queen is merely the head of the secret service.
Perhaps, Mr. Sistani is a 1600 level player who got beat alot and so now he personally hates the game. Either that or they might figure that it absorbs too much of a person's time, energy, and intellect and takes away from studies of the scripture, but almost anything can do that, if you let it, even pool - that is Trouble with a capital T.

[WoodrowFan]

19. because it's fun??

because it's fun? Or maybe because they think by moving the pieces around and deciding which piece "lives" or "dies" you are playing God?? :shrug: